Red Cross Closes Shelter After Power is Restored in San Carlos

The Red Cross served hundreds of people with 500 meals for breakfast and 500 meals for lunch, as well as 2,240 bottles of water, 48 cups of juice and 94 snacks.

Posted May 04, 2013

SAN CARLOS (May 4, 2013) – The American Red Cross Grand Canyon Chapter, in coordination with the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation’s tribal council, closed a shelter Saturday that it opened Friday in San Carlos for residents who were affected by a power outage on the reservation.

A generator inside the gymnasium at Burdette Memorial Hall provided power, and the Red Cross served hundreds of people with 500 meals for breakfast and 500 meals for lunch, as well as 2,240 bottles of water, 48 cups of juice and 94 snacks. The Red Cross, with seven workers on site, also had 100 cots and 200 blankets available, transporting the supplies from Payson in a shelter trailer.

More than 6,000 residents on the 9,300-person reservation have been without power since Friday morning following an outage caused by a major power transmission line failure. A state of emergency was declared on the reservation after severe winds destroyed 1,800 feet of an electrical line between Coolidge Dam and Winkelman, and the stoppage of eight wells reduced the water supply. Power couldn’t be restored Friday because of strong winds in San Carlos that grounded helicopter support, but thanks to improving weather conditions, crews hoped to get power back about 6 p.m. Saturday.

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. It’s a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. The Grand Canyon Chapter, established in 1916, re-chartered in 1999 and expanded in 2003, ranks as the fifth-largest chapter nationally, serving the more than 5.1 million people in Apache, Coconino, Gila, La Paz, Maricopa, Mohave, Navajo, Pinal, Yavapai and Yuma counties. For more information on the Grand Canyon Chapter, please visit www.redcross.org/gcc, like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/redcrossgcc or follow us on Twitter under the handle @RedCrossGCC.